


life left on the shore

by Sylv



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Character Death, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-02
Updated: 2013-11-02
Packaged: 2017-12-31 06:12:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1028206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sylv/pseuds/Sylv
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She watches, and waits, and listens to her tail beating at the water, and loves from afar.</p>
<p>Cora the mermaid, Allison the girl.</p>
            </blockquote>





	life left on the shore

**Author's Note:**

> Suggested listening: Dead In The Water by Ellie Goulding

The salt clings to her skin like she lives in the water. She’s so natural, even with the weak arms and legs that she has. She moves with a grace that is ethereal, and lies on her back, floating, long after goose bumps appear on her oh so human skin. The sinking sun caresses her gently, and when it sets, the moon and stars take over the job, illuminating every jut of bone, deepening each hollow in shadow.

Oh, but how close she stays to the shore! So Cora watches from afar, heart beating rapidly in her chest, cat eyes widening to let in as much light as possible. She lets herself sink to the ocean floor, which at this depth is barely a few seconds’ journey. Her gills flutter, readjusting to breathing the water around her. She can hear, off by the sandy shore, the splashing that means her beautiful angel is leaving her real home and returning to the shiny and stretched falsity of her other home. 

Cora ventures as close as she dares, snaking through the shells, but her fear catches up to her, and she flutters back into deeper water once she is sure that the girl is gone.

—-

It is much more difficult to catch glimpses of her dark-haired nymph during the glaring light of day. The shore swarms with others playing in the waves, and Cora can barely rise up above the water line without the chance of being spotted.

Her girl is here though, as she always is. Her long curls are plastered down against her neck and shoulders, and her bright teeth flash in the noonday sun as she talks and laughs with the ones around her.

And it is only at these times that Cora wishes for the ungainly appendages that would allow her to rise up onto the land, the bend of the knees and long line of thigh. She swirls in circles and braids seaweed into her own hair, fingers running down, down, the throat and the breast, the curve of stomach, not so different at all—

All the way to the silver scales of the powerful tail that beats and curls, cutting the water with ease.

That tail whisks her away on days like these, when she can’t bear to be so close to her girl diving into the water and racing in laps alongside those who can touch her if they so choose.

—-

It is on one of these golden days that Cora learns her land love’s name.

She is out in a boat with two others, maybe three; it doesn’t matter, they fade into the heat haze of the background compared to this girl after giving her the needed name, this girl with brilliant brown eyes and a name that drips like sweet song off the tongue:

Allison.

She follows their little sailing boat, swimming underneath when she suspects one of them to be looking, dipping up towards the peeling paint of the sides when she dares. She is so close.

They move out into deep water where she feels more at home, where she nothing could bother them if only it was just the two of them. When the wind is dead and there are no ropes to be tugged at, Allison lies out on the sunbaked deck or rests her forearms on the railing and leans her head on them, staring out into the water.

When she does this, Cora keeps a steady beat deeper underneath, where she knows those human eyes will not be able to catch sight of her. Their gazes meet even if Allison doesn’t know, and Cora can smile at her, can stare in awe that such perfection could come from anywhere other than the nurturing arms of the sea.

She ducks to the seabed every once in a while and shuffles through the swaying life there to find shells of ridged purple, smooth pearl and twisted red. She thinks about leaving them as little presents for her princess, but always ends up letting them drop to back to the floor where she found them.

—-

Every once in a while, Allison will return to the water that she left only an hour or so before when the sky is dark save for pinpricks of far away light. She will spread out her towel and glance around quickly before shedding the scraps of fabric hiding her body. And she will come back to Cora.

The waves caress her like they miss her, an extension of the arms Cora wishes desperately to wrap around the warm body slicing through salt with ease. Her breast is full, and muscles are taught underneath the skin of curves as she moves.

Cora flits back and forth, to be in front of her, to be behind her, to catch every moment of this girl in her true element, free from the holds and restrictions that the land world keeps her in.

Allison will do tumbles and tricks, playful as a dolphin, and that open smile will grace her face again. Cora will follow her lead, flipping backwards and forwards, spinning and pretending that they are swimming together.

All too soon Allison’s strength will wear out, and she retreats back to the world that she came from. She will don the clothing she flung away from her body, and shivering, would wrap herself up to head back, away to where Cora cannot follow her.

—-

It is unexpected, the evening that Allison comes already nude, and before the last rays of the sun have disappeared below the horizon. She sets out in an even stroke and Cora waits at her usual depth of water, ensuring that she keep a distance between them.

Allison swims out to her routine stopping place, and continues in a straight line, keeping a pace that speaks of trying to catch the last vestiges of sunlight around the corner of the world. Cora follows slowly.

There is no pause in her attack, and Cora’s heart beats faster. If she is really not going to stop… if she really is going to push herself, there’s a chance; there’s a chance—

Cora darts in immediately, her long webbed fingers grasping tightly around the slim ankle kicking above her. There is a shriek that Cora is sure allowed water down into her human, air-breathing lungs. Allison’s arms flail wildly, and she kicks out at whatever is holding her, but Cora is sure that her downward descent is too fast for her to reach the surface even if she does get free.

Her heart swells, and she looks back to see Allison’s eyes, meeting hers in reality for the first time. Water glimmers over the swells of her body, her dark hair streaming out behind her and Cora knows that this is where she belongs; this is where she was meant to be.

It isn’t long before Allison’s eyes shut, and bubbles of air escape from the slackness of her jaw. It is much easier to swim without the resistance, and Cora slows her journey, adjusting her grip so that she has her beautiful girl around the waist instead.

There are those goose bumps across the skin that Cora trails with her palms, and her lips pale to blue even as she is looking. Perfect skin, perfect, soft hair just begging to have souvenirs embedded in it.

Cora presses her lips to the unresponsive ones in front of her, and in that contact, knows.

Oh, how she will be returned to the sea!


End file.
